MINUTES OF MEETING OF
IRONTON CITY COUNCIL
March 26, 2020
6:00 p.m.

A regular meeting of Ironton City Council was held on Thursday, March 26, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. via the internet. Present was Vice Mayor Craig Harvey, who presided and members: Cleary, Haney, Hock, Kline, Pierce, Rist – seven.

A prayer was given by Rev. Eric Barnes of First Baptist Church. Mr. Harvey pointed the camera to the flag, and anyone who wanted to stood for the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The Minutes of the Regular Meeting of March 12, 2020, the Finance Committee Meeting of March 12, 2020, and the Strategic Planning Committee Meeting of March 12, 2020, stood approved as submitted.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION – None

COMMUNICATIONS

Mr. Harvey said there was a letter from the Ohio Department of Public Safety regarding the Municipal Vehicle License Tax, and a letter from Anderson & Anderson regarding the extension of City Income Tax deadline due to COVID-19. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to receive, file and make a part of the minutes the two above-mentioned communications. Motion passed unanimously

REPORTS

Mr. Harvey said he has a report from the Public Utilities Meeting of March 18, 2020. Ms. Rist is Chairman of that committee, and that was the night before the Attorney General said that we could meet virtually; but due to her increased risk for COVID-19 health status, Ms. Rist was unable to join, but Mr. Haney and himself were present as a quorum for the Public Utilities Meeting. He said Mr. Pierce and Mr. Kline joined them, as well as the Finance Director and the Mayor. He said in that meeting they (the Public Utilities Committee) gave favorable recommendation to Ordinance No. 20-22, which is on the agenda tonight; and they also gave a favorable recommendation to what was discussed in the Strategic Planning Committee Meeting, which was the unnamed ordinance that is establishing fees for unoccupied structures.

ORDINANCES

ORDINANCE NO. 20-19 –       AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING AND IMPLEMENTING A PROGRAM TO CHARGE MITIGATION RATES FOR THE DEPLOYMENT OF EMERGENCY AND NON-EMERGENCY SERVICES BY THE FIRE DEPARTMENT FOR SERVICES PROVIDED/RENDERED FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON was given first reading.

Mr. Harvey said that was discussed heavily in the budget workshops that they had on Saturdays, and they had a meeting with Fire Chief Mahlmeister, and they had some different opinions on that with insurances. He said Nate put together, and if anyone wanted to comment on that, to go ahead. Mr. Kline said basically this is billing insurances for reimbursement of emergency services for our Fire Department, such as a car accident or house fire. He said the exhibit on the ordinance lists the rates that would be billed to the insurance companies. He said after discussing this, they said they would like to have this ordinance go through three readings to give time for additional public feedback with questions and concerns. He said this is something that many municipalities and communities do already throughout the country; and after talking to different insurance agents, the majority of them have this cost built in for reimbursement. He said the exhibit attached to the ordinance is aligned with industry standards that many companies have, and he and Chief Mahlmeister have reviewed as suggested for acceptable reimbursements. He said in addition, Chief Mahlmeister has reached out to other fire chiefs throughout the State that have used this program to bill insurance companies and have had positive feedback from them. He said there is no cost to the City to take this program on. He said all of the revenues that are received, the companies just take a portion of what is collected. He said they would like to give it three readings for residents that may have any questions and expand on that. Mr. Cleary said he was pretty sure that at one time they had an ordinance to do part of this. He asked if they had looked to see if there were any ordinances already in place. Mr. Kline said they did look back and do that. He said he was working with Brigham and Chief Mahlmeister, and that was not brought up that there was already something in place. He asked Mr. Cleary if he knew what year that might have been, and he could look back and see what the ordinance was. Mr. Cleary said he can’t recall when it was. He said his term was in 1997, and he thinks it was in place then because they looked into charging his insurance company for the cost of the clean-up. Mr. Kline said he will look back and ask Brigham to look at it. He said they have a month because they’re going to give three readings. He said he knows it is not being done now, as far as the billing goes. He said the billing is not actually being done by the City. He said the Chief would submit reports to a third-party company that would be selected by himself and the Mayor. He just submits the reports, and they do all the billing themselves. Mr. Cleary said he thinks it is probably a good idea. He said he read the ordinance today, and he thinks it talked about not billing the homeowner unless it is something like an arson case or something. He asked if he read that right. Mr. Kline said it still goes based on what the Fire Chief and Inspector would send to be billed.

ORDINANCE NO. 20-20 –       EXTENDING THE CITY INCOME TAX FILING AND PAYMENT DEADLINE TO JULY 15, 2020 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.

Mr. Harvey said he did ask Brigham about this prior to Council because the Ohio legislation virtually did the same thing today, but they did it more of an encouragement for them to do it. He said his concern was that we were just going to duplicate what they had already done, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Brigham Anderson said that hopefully everyone got his letter about the legislation from yesterday. He said what the legislation did is authorize the Tax Commissioner to extend the deadline to July. He said he anticipates that happening probably by today or tomorrow, and what that means is if the State of Ohio income tax is delayed to July 15th, that automatically by statute delays the municipal income tax to the same date. He said it is his best guess is that will happen by the end of the week, that the Tax Commissioner will set forth a policy to extend it, along with the Federal Government that has already extended it, to July 15th. Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-20 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously and Ordinance No.

20-20 was given second and third reading. Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Mr. Cleary, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-20. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

ORDINANCE NO. 20-22 –       TO VACATE A PORTION OF LAWRENCE STREET FROM 2ND STREET TO NORFOLK AND SOUTHERN RAILROAD AND

DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.

Mr. Harvey said this ordinance was given a favorable recommendation in Public Utilities Committee meeting on March 18th. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce, to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-22 second and third reading by title only. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Harvey asked Brigham if this vacation needs to get three separate readings. Brigham said he is not sure it has to get three separate readings unless there is specific provision in the charter. He said if so, it is not coming to him right away. He said he will look at that and get back to him. Ordinance No. 20-22 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-22. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

 

ORDINANCE NO. 20-23 –       AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH IRONTON METROPOLITAN HOUSING AUTHORITY AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given first reading.

Mr. Harvey said Ordinance No. 20-23 was favorably recommended in Finance, and he failed to mention that Ordinance No. 20-20, which has already been adopted, was also favorably recommended in Finance tonight. Mr. Cleary asked if this was something they needed to go ahead and get passed now. Chief Wagner said that is something they usually start around the 1st of May when school is starting to let out and when they have little league games, etc. She said she is not saying it is an emergency and has to be passed today—it’s just something they have always done, but that would be up to Council, however they wanted to handle that. Mr. Cleary said he didn’t care either way, but Chief Wagner is saying when school is out, but he doesn’t know if they will be back to school before next fall. Mr. Cleary said they do need to get it in place because he doesn’t want to lose it. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Mr. Pierce to suspend the rules and give Ordinance No. 20-23 second and third reading by title only.   Mr. Haney said he is glad Bob brought that up. He said we obviously don’t know if school is going to be back in session, but it’s looking more and more like it is not going to be in session. He said with everything going on, we are confined to our houses right now, but if things get better, if that’s something we use in the summertime while kids are out of school, I would agree with Bob and go ahead and enact it. Motion passed unanimously to give Ordinance No. 20-23 second and third reading by title only, and Ordinance No. 20-23 was given second and third reading. Mr. Cleary moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-23. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

ORDINANCE NO. 20-17 –       AMENDING THE TEMPORARY BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF IRONTON, STATE OF OHIO, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 2020 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given second reading.

ORDINANCE NO. 20-11 –       ORDINANCE RENAMING LINE ITEMS FOR FUND

42-00-8-0099-0054 and FUND 01-15-5-0099-0054 AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY was given third reading.

Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to adopt Ordinance No. 20-11. Ayes: Haney, Hock, Kline, Pierce – four. Nays: Cleary, Harvey, Rist – three. ADOPTED

RESOLUTIONS

RESOLUTION NO. 20-21 –      RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING POLICE CHIEF TO PURCHASE A VEHICLE was read.

Mr. Harvey said Resolution No. 20-21 was given a favorable recommendation in Finance this evening. Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to pass Resolution No. 20-21. Motion passed unanimously. ADOPTED

MISCELLANEOUS

Mr. Harvey said Mr. Elam mentioned in Finance Committee that Council had received the February 2020 financials. He said he knows everyone will have to review those before we can take any action on that, but he asked John to deliver those to your mailboxes to lessen the traffic to the City Building. He said he also wanted to mention that the Governor today, as well as a few other sources he had heard from, extended the absentee voting deadline—there will be face-to-face vote for the primary election, but the absentee voting deadline is extended until April 28, 2020. He said he would like to encourage everyone to do their civic duty and vote, and he said you can do that by going to VoteOhio.gov and printing out an absentee ballot. And if you are unable to print from home or you cannot access that in some way because the State of Ohio government page has been bombarded with things, or you can call the local Board of Elections to request one. He doesn’t know how they facilitate that because the Courthouse is limited on the number of people who come in and out, but he thinks if you call the Board of Elections, they can facilitate having that ready at the door for you, if you have no access to printing or the government website does not work.

Mr. Kline moved, seconded by Ms. Rist, to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel with the Mayor, John Elam, Chief Wagner and Brigham Anderson, with no action following. Motion passed unanimously.

Minutes were taken by Marta Leach, Clerk.

In attendance: John Elam, Finance Director, Brigham Anderson and Mayor Cramblit.